The reaper is the agent of harvest, traditionally wielding a sickle or scythe and later represented by mechanical equipment. Because reaping ends the life of the standing crop at the moment of maturity, the term has powerful symbolic force. In poetry, the reaper may embody labour, fulfilment, mortality, fate, or divine judgement. The figure of the Grim Reaper transforms an agricultural worker into death personified, while solitary field reapers can evoke song, endurance, beauty, and the dignity of seasonal work.

Reaper can mean a person who cuts ripe grain or a machine that performs the same task. The term's literary force comes partly from the Grim Reaper, in which the harvest worker becomes a personification of death. In agricultural poetry, however, reapers may sing, labour collectively, or embody seasonal skill. Students should identify whether the reference is literal, mechanical, or symbolic. Related terms include harvest, sickle, scythe, binder, sheaf, reaping, and mortality.